Archives for September, 2011

Has anyone ever told you to "take a chill pill"? (I thought this phrase went out of vogue years ago, but I still catch it now and again. Oh, and it''s apparently a $52 pajama set for young girls, too. Thanks, Google.)

Or, maybe you've found yourself in the company of a co-worker who rolls her eyes...

Is it weird that I'm sitting on my laptop and blogging from the grocery store?
I mean, it's not like I've hunkered down in aisle 9 next to the instant oatmeal. I'm in the "Alcove" section of Wegmans, a cafeteria-like dining and WiFi area in the corner of the store, and I have a fantastic...

Email used to be fun.
It was fun back when I got my very first screen name on AOL in 7th grade. It was fun in college when my only emails were invitations to campus activities or surprise announcements that class would...

"You know what, Summer?" my doctor asked me on Wednesday during my latest appointment.
"No, what?" I answered.
"I appreciate all the questions you ask when you're in here. Most of my patients just listen to what I have to say, nod, and then leave," he admitted.
I am definitely not the "nod and then...

If you've ever struggled with agoraphobia -- or even just agoraphobic tendencies, as I like to call its watered-down sibling -- you know what I'm talking about. And for those with panic disorder without agoraphobia, it's still not a...

Have you ever immersed yourself so deeply in a task that you don't notice the world around you? Maybe you forget to eat a meal (because you honestly didn't even notice that you were hungry!). Or, maybe you convince yourself that you've only been working for about twenty then you notice the clock. Five hours have passed. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls...

As I type, a cat named Knuckles is doing a figure 8 around my ankles. Earlier, he took a nap by the sliding glass doors at my future in-laws' house. Then, he ran into the kitchen and furiously rolled around on a small green rug in front of the sink.
He's also famous for curling up on paper -- newspaper, computer paper, wrapping paper -- and napping...